Armando Riesco

A native of Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, born in 1977 to a Cuban mother and father, Armando Riesco moved to metropolitan San Juan with his parents at the age of three and grew up in that community, then attended Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola High School and studied English under the tutelage of the esteemed Fr. Francis Golden. This linguistic knowledge prompted the young man for a move to the mainland United States after high school, and he encountered no difficulty gaining acceptance to Northwestern University as a theater major, where he was mentored by David Downs. Thereafter, Riesco maintained an emphasis on stage work for several years, both Chicago-area theater and New York off-Broadway theater, at such prestigious venues as the Tribeca Playhouse and the Manhattan Theater Club, and moved into film and television work in the mid-2000s. Memorable features that enlisted Riesco in the cast included the Zach Braff comedy Garden State (2004), the Jimmy Fallon/Drew Barrymore romantic comedy Fever Pitch, and the high-flown adventure spectacle National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007). In 2008, Riesco turned up as Benigno in Steven Soderbergh's massive, ambitious four-hour Che Guevara biopic Che.

~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide